What's at the edge of CDR?

With all the attention and investment going towards CDR these days, we've been wondering recently if it really is still at the frontier of climate action. 

What's at the absolute bleeding edge? Today, I'll explore that question with two guests from some of the industry's most influential organizations: Nikki Batchelor, of XPRIZE Carbon Removal and Jack Andreasen from Breakthrough Energy.

Nikki currently serves as the Executive Director of the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal, one of the most significant efforts to date aimed at accelerating the development and scaling of carbon removal technologies. Her work focuses on identifying and nurturing innovative approaches to carbon dioxide removal (CDR) that can contribute to global climate goals.

Jack is famed for his work on climate policy, particularly in the context of carbon removal and clean energy innovation. He’s currently carbon management policy manager at Breakthrough Energy is a pan-solution organization dedicated to helping humanity avoid climate disaster through everything from policy advocacy to venture investing to philanthropy, and it’s famously founded by Bill Gates. 

They’re behind the scenes on a lot of climate intervention, and they’re backing both the thinkers and the doers.

Nikki and Jack will be our expert commentators on the latest and greatest CDR headlines, and then we’ll talk a little bit more about the topic du jour: "Is CDR still at the frontier of climate"?

Episode Links

Xprize Carbon Removal

Breakthrough Energy

DOE DAC Prize

CDR FYI report

Catona Climate Announcement

Project Mammoth

1.5 + Oxy’s Stratos facility

Heirloom

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction: Is CDR Frontier

02:20 Introducing the Guests: 

05:20 DOE's DAC Pilot Prize

08:46 The State of DAC Technology

17:06 Challenges in the Land Category

20:17 The Scarcity Mindset in CDR

30:10 AI and CDR: A New Frontier?

36:41 The Frontier of CDR: Current Innovations and Challenges

42:35 Enabling Technologies for CDR

52:18 Rapid Fire Questions

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For more about the show and more information about episodes, visit Climate on the Edge.

Supported by emrgnce - innovative minds exploring climate’s next frontier.

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